Meet the Woman-Run Start-up Destigmatizing Period Sex, One Tampon Alternative at a Time

Period sex isn't for everyone—we get that—but we also get not wanting to stop having sex for 12 weeks a year just because of a little blood. That's why, when we heard that there was a company making a device specifically for couples who are cool with period sex, we were intrigued. Flex bills itself as a tampon alternative capable of providing up to 12 hours of leak protection. But the most revolutionary thing about it is that the disposable disc can be left in during sex and prevent any blood from ruining your mood (or your sheets).

When cofounder and CEO Lauren Schulte first developed the idea, she wasn't trying to make period sex neater—she's actually cool with it being messy. She was really just looking for a less annoying way to deal with her period than the standard-issue tampon-pad-tampon-pad rigamarole. Tampons were giving her yeast infections, the strings always ended up with pee on them, and she could feel menstrual cups when they were inside her and found them impossible to take out. She tried 32 products, and nothing was much better. Turns out, she realized, there really hadn't been much in the way of period progress since the 1930s.

"I knew I wanted to build a team that could help me make something specifically to solve some of the pain points around archaic menstrual products," she tells Glamour. But after making Flex for this purpose, she started hearing from customers who were using it in a different way: to prevent leaks during sex. She figured emphasizing this benefit would help give people who didn't want to totally switch their menstrual supply routine a whole new reason to use the product.

Flex is designed to be placed over the cervix the way a diaphragm would be, and the medical-grade material actually warms up, softens, and bends to fit your body so that it won't fall out. It's designed to fit in the vaginal fornix—right around the cervix—where you can barely feel it. "This area is much wider, more spongy, and less sensitive than the vaginal canal," says Schulte. Flex's team analyzed years of data on women's diaphragm prescriptions to figure out the right size, then tested their finished product in an FDA-registered lab and among themselves and their friends to make sure it was safe and effective.

FLEX

They also conducted surveys to find out more about period stigma. Unfortunately (and probably unsurprisingly), there's still a lot deterring both men and women from period sex besides just the potential mess. Flex found that 52 percent of women feel dirty when they have their periods, and 59 percent were taught it's impolite to talk about menstruation. They also found that nearly half of women had been rejected by male sexual partners because of their periods. This pretty much confirms what we already knew: Another survey by Sapio found that nearly a third of people find period sex inappropriate.

"I would love to live in a world where period sex is had by everyone," says Shulte. "The benefits are aplenty. We’d all be having 25 percent more sex." She adds, "And frankly, I’m most horny during my period."